The elements of permanent influence

The Elements

OF

PERMANENT INFLUENSE.

Discourse Delivered in the Fifteenth Street
Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C,
Sunday, February w, 1890,

BY

EDWARD W, BLYDEN, LL.D.

A nthor of ' CTl RISTI ANITY, ISL.AM AND THE NEGRO RACE," "THE AFRICAN

Problem," &c.,&c.

Published by Bequest.

WASHINGTON:
K I,. I'knoleton, Printer. 438 7th Street, N. W.
1890.

The Elements

OF

PERMANENT INFLUENSE,

Discourse Delivered in the Fifteenth Street
Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C,
Sunday, February 10, 1890,

BY

EDWARD W, BLYDBN, LL.D.

Author of ''Christianity - , Islam and the Negro Race," ' The African
Problem," &c, <fec.

Published by Bequest.

WASHINGTON:
K. L. Pendleton, Printer, 438 7TH Street, N. W.
1890.

THIS DISCOURSE

IS DEDICATED

¥0 ^EY. FIOTCI£ J. Gl^IflKE, D.D.,

Pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church,
W ashington. D. C. as a token of personal esteem

and a tribute to his unswerving devotion
to the cause of africa and the
Negro Race.

THE ELEMENTS OF PERMANENT INFLUENCE.

" But now I hey desire a better country."— Heb. xi— 16.

Among all nations, civilized or uncivilized, and in all
languages, life /is represented as a journey — a pilgrimage;
and because there are successive stages and changes,
there is implanted in us a restlessness, a constant desire
to improve the present. Man never is but always to be
blest.

We ourselves undergo changes, both voluntary and in-
voluntary. Changes take place in our physical condi-
tions. We grow or decay constantly. There is no cessa-
tion to the movements— childhood, youth, manhood, old
age.

There are changes which take place by our voluntary
efforts. As in early years we begin to observe, the im-
pressions we receive from contact with the objects
around, change our mental attitudes. But more directly
we change through the influence of the school upon us,
when we come in contact; with those whose business it is
to modify our conceptions of things — to give us larger
knowledge of ourselves and of the external world. But
there is always in us— whether we are undergoing the un-
conscious changes which external conditions produce up-
on* us, or the levolution through which we constantly
pass under the influence of teachers — an undercurrent
of desire for the better. As we take our places in life —
if there is anything in us — this all-pervading desire is the
unfailing stimulus of progress. The merchant, the scohlar,
the artist, the statesman, having visions of amelioration
both for themselves, for their professions ai d for human-

ity, are lifted out of the region of sloth and indifference
and carried onward and upward.

One of the blessings of life — a blessing, perhaps, in dis-
guise — are its illusions. We are allured in the desert of our
earthly pilgrimage by mirage after mirage, and, though
illusion after illusion is dispelled, we still think that the
full and fresh and overflowing fountain is but a few steps
beyond, and in our imagination we see it sparkling in the
sunlight. We press on. In this way, in spite of ourselves,
advancement is made. Or, to change the figure, we
chase the butterflies, which cover the landscape of our
imagination, regardless of the ruggedness and fatigue of
the way, until, whether we have seized the gorgeous in
sect or not, we have traversed a long distance.

All changes, however, are not real changes. We can
transfer ourselves in dreams to other scenes. We can, in
imagination, take the wings of a dove and fly to seme
distant mountain — to some isle of the sea. We can stand
on the summit of our towers in Spain — our airy castles —
and catch the breezes and view the landscape of a richer
country; but, alas, from those heights Ave must descend
to reality. We find that the imaginary — the ideal — is
cold and lonely, and we come back again to the warmth
of the actual and practical.

But there is always a desire for something not in our
possession and which we long for as desiiable, if not indis-
pensable. This leads me to consider Some of the ele-
ments OF A GENUINE AND PERMANENT PROGRESS.

First. There must be the desire for better. This de-
sire implies a recognition of imperfection — a knowledge
deficiency. It is unnecessary to point out that all the
backwardness everywhere, in all departments of life, and
among all peoples, is owing, as a rule, to lack of desire
for improvement.

Second. The desire will avail nothing, if there be no
movement. When the prodigal son came to himself,

5

realized, that is, his condition, and tbe intense desire for
a better state of things was awakened in liis soul, lie
said, U I will arise and go to my Father," and he arose and
went. There is very little use in the most ardent pray-
ers, and even in the exceeding' bitter cry, if there is no
movement. "Wherefore criest thou to me?" said God to
Moses, "Speak to the children of Israel that they go
forward." The Apostle Paul seemed to place all his hope
for perfection on this constant movement — this going.
"This one thing I do, forgetting the things that are be-
hind, I press toward the mark," &c.

Of course, then, a third and essential element of perma-
nent progress is righteousness. Movement on the wrong
course is worse than standing still. There is a general
righteousness and a specific righteousness. There is a
righteous course for the business man — not merely a spir-
itual righteousness, but what might be called a temporal
or secular righteousness or lightness. The successful
man of business is he who is endowed with certain peculi-
ar gifts — a sense of order, of the value of time, a presence
of mind in difficulty, a power of seeing the thing to be
done at the proper time, insight into the relations of dif-
ferent kinds of wealth. These are the qualities which
have tilled this land and Europe with the magnates of
riches.

This is a bettering of the outward conditions. But the
elements of usefulness and permanence are lacking where
the man of money has no proper idea of his possessions,
When he uses them only for himself — only to get on — on-
ly to push forward his family or his friends: with no
larger aim for the interests of the community or the race.
To this man there is a constant dissatisfaction, and when
he has advanced in years he will have wearied old age,
magnificence and splendor in his outward surroundings,
but no largeness of heart — forgotten, and justly forgot-
ten, the day after his death.

Take the artist. He lias the means of leading men to
the better eonntry intellectually and morally — of lifting
them by his work to a higher plane. He has the gift of
revealing the inner beauty of the universe — the gilt of el-
evating the imagination of men — the gift of giving noble
pleasure — the gift of teaching men how to see and to love
what they see. But if he uses these gifts for himself — for
making money and fame for himself, they will lose their
power, or, rather, the living ideas which give tliem their
power. All true inspiration and true use of it conies of
throwing one's self into the interests, feelings, and move-
ments ot humanity. The musician can make noble music
when the beats of inspiration are harmonious with the
beats of the general heart; when love, not self, is at the
root. The writer or speaker who wishes to leave to the
world of men a legacy of true thoughts, true work, should
take unto himself the whole world of men. When he
ceases to recognize the fact that every good and perfect
gift is from above — from the common Father — when lie
is tempted to pride himself upon the divine things in him
as if they were his own and for his own use, and to think
himself specially favored of God, and separated by his
gifts from the rest of mankind, then his work is either
destroyed or rendered imperfect.

Take the statesman. Here is the man whose profes-
sions and aims are to improve by legislation or diplomacy
the conditions around him. He desires literally a better
country. If we study at all the course of contemporary
history, w r e find, throughout the world, from the Indian
to the Pacific Ocean, that the desire of rulers and law-
makers — the aspirations of classes and professions — are
for a better country. But nowhere, or, at least, only in
exceptional cases, do we find commended or adopted, the
only principles through which a better country can be se-
cured, — the principles laid down b\ Him of whom it is
said that His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Men

7

construct other kingdoms, organize powerful political
parties, lay other foundations for power and greatness,
but they have in them the elements neither of beneficence
nor perpetuity. There is no way of winning an enduring
kingdom over men's hearts, but the way which is built
within us by the righteousness of God and without us by
His love — and within and without us by both — by right-
eous love and loving righteousness.

The races now holding power in the world have not al-
ways held it ; but, because by the use, at various times,
of unchristian methods they have secured power, which,
must, owing to its origin and use, be brief, even if it lasts
a thousand years, they indulge in boast of the very qual-
ities in spife ol* which not because of which, theyhave ex-
tended their sway to the ends of the earth.

W e heard a few weeks ago, a distinguished statesman
from his place in the Senate, introduce an oration for
which the whole country had waited with anxious
expectation in the following terms:

"Mr. President, the race to which we belong is the
most arrogant and rapacious, the most exclusive and in-
domitable in history. It is the conquering and the un-
conquerable race, through which alone man has taken
possession of the physical and moral world. To our race
humanity is indebted for religion, for literature, for civil-
ization. It has a genius for conquest, for politics, for ju-
risprudence and lor administration. The home and the
family are its contributions to society. Individualism,
fraternity, liberty and equality have been its contribu-
tions to the state. All other races have been its enemies
or its victims."

Now, in this remarkable utterance, the sentences that
are true are not commendable, and the sentences that are
commendable are not true. The last sentence exposes
the hollowness of the boast. All other races have been
its enemies or its victims. The "individualism, the fra-
terniy and the equality" have been for itself, not for bu-
rn an it}'.

8

But this was a strange boast, even if It were well founded,
for the representative of a Christian nation to indulge, in
on so important an occasion — a nation professing to hold
in reverence, above all other peoples, that book which
teaches the duty of humility and the beauty of sacrifice,,
which professes to follow Him who taught that SERVICE
not powisr is the measure of title nobility, and the evi-
dence of Christian discipleship ; who took upon Himself
the form of a servant, who, according to the touching nar-
rative of the loving disciple, —

u Knowing that the Father had given all things into?
his hands, and that He was come from God and went to
God, riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and
took a towel and girded himself. After that he poureth
water into a basin, and began to wasli his disciples' feet
and to wipe them with the towel, wherewith he was
girded."

Here was the evidence of enduring power — service. It
wa^ His constant teaching to His disciples — He that would
be chief among you let him become your servant;" and
this, among His last acts, was intended to give an impres-
sive object lesson to be transmitted through them to all
His followers. "I have given you an example/' He said,
at the close of the ceremony, " that ye should do as I have
done unto you."

And this is the ground of all honor and greatness in
the sight of God and man. No kingdom, not founded on
this, whatever its glare and glitter, and however pro-
tracted its influence, can be permanent. If we will take
a glance at history, past and contemporary, we shall find
that, after all, the instincts of humanity are to honor ser-
vice, not power. To whom are the monuments erected in
the great centres of civilization 1 ? Are they to men who
only exercised power ? You will find that the names
around which the heart's reverence and devotion pour
their choicest perfumes are not those of the merely pow-
erful. It is not the illustrations of the rapacity of men

9

that will ring down the ages. It is not these that, like
n refreshing stream, will rush through the desert of the
future, giving life by their overflow and producing abund-
ant harvests. No; the greastest men have not been the
rapacious conquerors or the kings or political leaders, but
the martys for truth and righteousness — those who set
free the bodies and souls of men — the prophets, the in
ventors, the poets, the philosophers, the artists. Not the
author of the Fugitive Slave Bill will be immortal in the
annals of this nation, but the writer of the P^mancipation
Proclamation. Not the boast of Senator Toombs that he
would call the roll of his slaves under the shadow of Bun-
ker Hill Monument, but the sayings of Phillips and Gar-
rison and Sumner — the songs of Whittier, of Longfellow,
of Lowell. Not the memory of Jeff Davis will send a
thrill throughout humanity, but the recollection of the
so-called insanity of John Brown. The men who wrought
and spoke for righteousness, for justice for freedom —
these are the men who have eternal power; their voices
ring now in our ears; their words move us now into new
passions, which exalt our life; their actions kindle in us
aspirations and efforts which lift us to higher levels. The
power of warriors, and kings, and wealth, aud rank sinks
into insignificance before this power, and men are begin-
ning at last to learn this truth,

•• Right forever on the scaffold ;

Wrong forever on the Thone;
Yet the scaffold sways the Future ;

And behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow

Keeping watch above His own."

That poet whom the Christian world is at this moment
lamenting sang with his latest breath —

" Of one who never turned his back, but march'd breast forward ;
Never doubted clouds would break ;
Never dream'd though Right were worsted. Wrong would triumph ;
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better;
Sleep to wake."

When the orator says that to the Caucasian race "hu-
manity is indebted for religion, for literature, for civiliza-

to

tion,"he is speaking with the inexactness not of the his-
torian, but of the politician. Everybody knows that the
basis of the civilization and literature of the present day
was on the Nile and not among the Caucasian race — not
on the Ilissus, the Tiber, the Khine or the Thames, but on
the rivers of Ethiopia. There were only two steps be-
tween Egypt and modern Europe — Greece and Koine.
Greece took not only civilization and literatuie but even
religion lrom Ethiopia, Such were the wonderful devel-
opments of civilization and literatuie and religion in that
country, that the early pcets and historians of Greece,
unable to understand such marvellous indigenous growth
attributed it to the direct interference of the gods, who
they affirm went every year to feast with the Ethiopians.

But even if — passing by the great religions of China
and India, professed by more than one-half of the human
race and with the founding of which Caucasians had
nothing whatever to do — we take the three highest re-
ligions — Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism, the
Caucasian can not claim to be their exclushe originators.
Moses, the founder of Judaism, was born in Africa and
trained in Egyptian philosophy, learned, we are told, " in
all the wisdom of the Egyptians." Though the Founder
of Christianity was Semitic or Caucasian, his life was
threatened in his infancy by a jealous and ambitious Cau-
casian ruler; and it was in the land of the Hamites and
by Hamite solicitude and hospitality that he was pre-
served; and when, during the last hours of his life one
set of Caucasians condemned him to death by false accu-
sations and another set imposed upon him the burden of
his own cross, it w as an African who came to the support
of that greatest of prophets. Again, when the religion
of Islam would have perished in the place of its origin,
by Caucasian intolerance and persecution, it was to the
land of Ham that its few adherents fled for shelter and
protection : so that if these religions did not originate in
Africa, Africa was their nursing mother.

1]

Tlie Caucasian characteristic impatience of guidance
and control, widen nailed tlie Redeemer of mankind to
the cross, makes it difficult now for them to carry the
Gospel to races alien to themselves. Tliej have gene to
foreign lands and the natives of those lands do not con-
sider tliem as following the principles of the icligion
they profess to have founded. The backward races u I e-
eome their victims or their enemies."

The African boasts not of the service which his country
and his people have rendered to civilization and religion ;
but lie knows that through all the ages and on all the conti-
nents he has rendeied service in the highest and in the low-
est walks. He has for three hundred years been the colossal
servant of the Western Hemisphere. But he takes the
word of the great Master lor it, that he who serves will
reign. He that will be chief first becomes a servant.
Therefore, he has defied the rapacity of the all-conquer-
ing Caucasian ; and his abounding vitality on this side
of the Atlantic is filling with dismay the dominant and
invincible race. The spectre of a reaction from service
to rule is haunting the visions of many of the thoughtful
Caucasians in the southern part of this country.

• But the rapacious instincts of the conquering races are
being neutralized by the pervading principles of Christi-
anity, wisich, in spite of individual views, are taking poses-
sion of nations. In spite of brag, and boast, and bluster,
the kingdoms of the world are becoming the kingdoms of
the Lord and of his Christ. It is being found out that the
rapacity was not a cause of, but a hindrance to, wide and
permanent influence. It is beginning to be seen that not
wealth and material comfort, and commercial prosperity
and political power, are the greatness of a nation ; these
are good and desirable, but the true greatness of a na-
tion does not abide in them alone.

It is under the influence of these convictions that the
young Emperor William of Germany is giving Europe a

12

sensation — troubling' the rapacious instincts of Lis race —
by the suggestion of an international labor conference,
with a view of meeting the nerds and desires of the work-
ing classes — to promote their health, morality and pro] ev
remuneration, and to preserve their claims to equality be-
before the law. He is endeavoring to make tl e laws of
his country in relation to the poor, the enslav ed, the over-
worked, the lost and the outcast, Christian laws.

Mr. Gladstone, also, the leader of the advanced views of
the other great — perhaps the greatest — Cam asian na-
tion, is endeavoring to bring the glad tidings of the Gos-
pel to the poor. We all know his self-denying labois for
Ireland. Only a few weeks ago, speaking of India, he
said, "There weie many transactions, ft hic-Ii eight to
raiee a blush of shame on the cheek of Englishmen ; but
principles of right were lememl ered by those who new
governed India. * * * Enormous as was ti e field for
enterprise (in that country) still moie lemaikable wasthe
field for courage and for virtue, and for showing that the
Christian profession of England was not a meie rame,
but that they hoped to recommend Christianity to the
good will and favor of the people of India by showing
the fruits that it produced in the lives of those who pro-
fessed i t." *

European explorers and pioneers are paying respect to
the teachings of Christianty. The civilized world read
with surprise and gratification, a few days ago, that Stan-,
ley, the great African traveler, was an earnest student
of the Bible — that for six months he had been studying
the new version of the Holy Scriptures — that he had a
reverential turn of mind; while others speak of luck he
speaks of a Divine Providence.

The missionary work in Africa is also taking a forward
move and will be conducted on a higher plane — that is,
more in accordance with the teachings of Christ. Men

* Speech at Ha warden, January 13, 1890.

13

from the higher Universities of Europe — . of deeper culture,
greater spiritual insight, wider sympathies, are now en-
listing in the work. On the Niger, on the Congo and on
the great Lakes these enlightened heralds of Christianity
are lifting up the standard of the cross.

All this insures a better future for humanity. The
natural rapacity of the Caucasian is eoming under the
controlling influence of the Prince of Peace.

Science is also contributing toward this humane end.
Men are learning more and more the vastness of humani-
ty and the persistency of the great types, and the impor-
tance to the whole of this persistency. It is only as we
move in narrow grooves, and know nothing of the vast
life beyond us, that we are narrow and contracted, and
think that outside of our little sphere there is nothing
worth consideration — nothing worth respecting or pre-
serving. Some of yon here will remember the description
given by Wordsworth of how he felt when he first went
from the country to London; A weight of ages, he says,
descended on his heart — no thought embodied, no distinct
remembrances, but weight and power — power growing
under weight.

This was met in him by a corresponding amplitude of
mind; and the sense of all the great city had done and
suffered, was doing and suffering still. Then followed
the deep impression of the vastness and unity of man.
He began to realize their joys, sorrows, sins, efforts, pas-
sions as outside of his own personality.

Something like this we see taking place in the bosom
of Europe — in relation to the great dark continent. By
a better acquaintance with the vastness of its tribes,
scientific and commercial adventurers are learning that
i he newly discovered peoples are too valuable, in their in-
tellectual and moral possibilities, to be destroyed. The
terrible indictment drawn by ('anon Fariar against the
drink traffic in Africa is haunting Europe like a night-
mare. Representatives of the various branches of the

14

European races are meeting* in conference to devise mcsm-
ures to protect the African from the ravages of their own
unscrupulous trade. Europe is rising and her leading;
minds are contending - lor an international reparation to
that continent for the wrongs inflicted upon her.

The examples of the past in dealing' with weaker races
are being ignored. It is no longer considered creditable
to '-expunge the savage like figures from a slate" A
spirit is being more and more infused into the progress
of the world, which tends to destroy race enmities, to
diminish the victims of race rapa ;ity, and to reconcile
nation with nation. Men begin to feel that when for
their own interest, or their own selfish purposes, th'\v vio-
late by war or by oppression justice or freedom or indi-
viduality in other nations or support those who violate
these things, they are not acting in accordance with Chris-
tian but Pagan traditions.

And it is to the progress of these principles in this-
land that we must trust for the rectification of whatever
is unjust and oppressive in the relation of the races.
Those who claim that this is their country exclusively, as
against all who wear the u shadowed livery of the burn-
ished sun," and aspire after a better country by means of
oppression and injustice are performing the labors of
Sisyphus or weaving the web of Penelope, or, worse still 7
sowing the wind. The only solution of suffering on the
one hand and of arrogance and anxiety on tin? other is
the application of the Golden Rule — "All things whatso-
ever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to
them."

In my travels in this country and mj observations
among the colored people I have been struck with the
marked improvement which they have made in the brief
period since the fundamental laws of the land have rec-
ognized their manhood. The history of no modern peo-
ple furnishes such evidences of Providential guidance and

15

innate possibilities. Twenty years of freedom find tlie
Russian serfs very little if any better off than they were
wlien freed from their masters. The American INegro, in
view of his achievements in five and twenty years, is a
wonder to the world; and among the candid observers of
his history, he inspires the hope and confidence in his ca-
pacity for the work of the future — the great work of re-
construction in the land of his fathers. For him as to his
future influence upon and position in the great human
family, nil desperandum is the doctrine I preach. Hav-
ing overcome so much he will overcome more.

*"0 passi graviora dabit deus his quoque finem."

He now pines with desire amid his uncomfortable sur-
roundings for a better country, he will reach that coun-
and, in many respects, here in the land of his birth.

He is learning to organize, to think, to express himself.
The influence of this, both upon himself and upon his
neighbors, must be transforming and elevating.

The courtesy of your pastor has allowed me the oppor-
tunity of saying a few words to you before I leave the
country. I am glad to thank you for the kind reception
and cordial welcome w T hich you have always accorded me.
I know that many of you live in a state of dissatisfaction
and unrest on account of the condition of our people in
this country. But, believe me, I see no ground for de-
spondency or despair. On the other hand, there is much
for encouragement and joy. Remember the reply of Sam-
son's mother to Manoah, when he said, " We shall surely
die, because we have seen God." She said, with true
womanly insight, "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He
would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-ofter-
ing at our hands, neither would He have showed us all
these things, nor would He at this time, have told us
these things" — Judges xiii-23.

There is a talent entrusted to you. It is your duty to

* Virgil, Book 1-198.

16:

call into action the highest forms of your being-. Do nofr
invert the true order of your lives by loving yourselves,
awl the world instead of the Lord and your neighbor. It"
does not matter what your calling may l>e — whether it be
what men call menial or what the world calls honorable —
whether it be to speak in the Liallsof Congress or to sweep
out those*halls — wlietlier it l>e to wait upon others or to
be waited on — it is the' manner of using your faculties:
that will determine the result — that will determine your
true influence in this world and your status in the world)
to come.

If you desire a better country in this world Let your
motto be -'onward and upward."

Not enjoyment and not. sorrow.
Is our destined* end or way ;
Knt to act that each tomorrow
Find us further than today."

Every one should do his part t'o advance humanity.
Each should exert himself to be a helper in progress.
Whatever your condition, you do occupy some room in the
world ; what are you doing to make return for rhe room
you occupy i There are so many of our people who fail to
realize their responsibility, who fail to hear the inspiring
call of the past and the prophetic call of the future.

Brethren, are you living the daily round of the present
without care or prayer, without effort or sacrifice for the
cause of human progress? When you look batik at the dis-
tance which, as a people, you have traversed, you have
cause for gratitude, and when you look before you and
around you to the facilities for growth and work which
Christian civilization supplies, and the increasing respon-
sibilities, there is surely sufficient to stimulate your zeal..

The great fields of wide and increasing necessities do
not lie afar off now. Men can go around the world in less
than eighty days. This brings to your very doors the
needy continent across the waters to which by blood you
are allied. Events are moving on for its regeneration ;

17

tire grand march of progress will go on whether yon
join it or not. There are ninny for whom the past lias no
inspiration' ami tlie future no meaning. But the way to
the > Golden Gate of the better country for the i ace will
9>e hewn out whetlier they aid or not.

!N©w, I com mend you to God and to tlie word of his
.grace. £ urge you to desne and seek after that better
country to which tlie text .refers, even the heavenly. For,
after all, the tilings that are seen are temporal, but the
things that are not s^en are eternal.

To tlio^-e who ate just entering - life; upon whom the
freshness and joy of youth still rest, I would say, life is
fleeting and it is hardly worth while to follow anything
but that which makes for ti e upbuilding of humanity.
Fill your lile with love and righteousness, with meekness
and peacemaking, with humbleness of heart, with faith-
ful work for God and man.

In a short time, most of us, who have reached the mid-
dle way of life will find our feet-stumbling among the
graves. If it is my privilege to return to this country, I
may find that those who are now bright and young have
ripened into years — sadder without — but I trust more joy-
ful within- But whether I may he permitted to return or
not, I know that in a few years at most, there will be
nothing left of any of mx but a few green spaces in the
burial ground. Therefore, let me urge yon, amid all your
temptations and trials, believe in the eternal Love. Keep
ilove yourselves, never lose its impulse, and you will he
anore and more fitted for the final citizenship and enfran-
chisement. When yon approach the close of the crisis,
your fellow citizens of the glorious city will come to you,
angel visitants will attend you and minister to you as
you cross the stream to that better country, whose in-
habitants never say I am sick, or I am weary or foot sore -

And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of
God and of the Lamb shall be in it ; and his servants

18

sliall serve Him ; and tliey shall see His face; and His
name sball be in their foreheads. And there shall he no
night there, and they need no candle, neither the light of
the sun ; for the Son of God giveth them light ; and they
shall reign forever and ever.